Category Archives: Music

Music recordings

Music – Sherlock Holmes

Composed by Hans Zimmer The score Hans Zimmer created for the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes vibrates with considerable fresh sound and energy. The first notable thing about it is its avoidance of sweeping string sections and fanfares of horns. There … Continue reading

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Music – Grunt

Sandra Boynton I’m reviewing this here as “music”, but it’s a delightful confection for the over-educated (I suppose). This work was released with there was a spate of recordings of Gregorian chants. In Grunt, Boynton gives the listener, and reader … Continue reading

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Music – Beethoven: the 9 Symphonies

John Eliot Gardiner, conductor; The Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique (Archiv Production) Beethoven is, of course, one of the Greats of classical music. But other than the Pastoral (the 6th) Symphony, I’ve found most recording of the symphonies hard for me … Continue reading

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Music – Memoirs of a Geisha

John Williams (composer) Williams is well known for bold, brassy fanfares for heroic films. Some of those scores I find a bit too much like each other. But Memoirs of a Geisha is different. Williams captures a sound that evokes … Continue reading

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Music – Still the Same

Rod Stewart Rod Stewart has one of those voices that shouldn’t really work for a singer. He’s got a rough edge to his sound. It is the fact that he can sing in tune, and has a knack for meaningful … Continue reading

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Music – They Called Her Babylon

Steeleye Span The traditional music band Steeleye Span has a long history of recording old ballads and songs with modern accompanyment and musical sensibility. They Called Her Babylon, released in 2004, continues that practice: songs about exile (“Van Diemen’s Land”), … Continue reading

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